We’re on the road again for the first time in over a year, and it’s been amazing so far. That was the biggest touring break we’ve had since 2006, but it seems like we still know how to play music! Chicago was sold out and incredible. Kansas City wasn’t sold out, but still incredible. Tonight in Seattle is sold out, and I assume it’ll be incredible (or else..). And past that, the rest of the shows are running low on tickets, so… you know what to do… Oh, you don’t? I meant you should go ahead and buy tickets down below before they’re gone.

On top of that, we just added a super awesome Nashville Halloween show on Oct 27th at Marathon Music Works (no MAVS and Bit Brigade on this one). This one’s gonna be reeaaal good. We were asked by Marathon and Lightning 100 (a great Nashville radio station) to play their annual Paranormal Rocktivity event. It’s gonna be the most exciting thing to ever happen four days before Halloween! We’ll be joined by Devo615 Allstars (a Devo cover supergroup, featuring members of The Shins, The Long Winters, Superdrag, The Raconteurs, Earl Burrows, Montessori Dads, The Pink Spiders) and ELEL. Get tickets below.

*some of these age restrictions can be circumvented by having a parent with you. However, YOU SHOULD CHECK WITH THE VENUE FIRST.

And as of writing this, the 525 SEA tape has yet to be found. So, you better tell your grandpa he should think about getting out of bed and warming up those legs, because I’m saying there’s still a chance! But seriously, why were all 4 grandparents bedridden? Especially because there was clearly nothing wrong with the grandpa, aside from a possible intense fear of pins and needles? Either way, grab a tape and roll the dice. Maybe you’ll never have to pay for another one of our shows ever again… forever. And you’ll help your grandpa realize he can still walk just fine!

MAKEUP AND VANITY SET PRESENTS… THE PROTOMEN… CASSETTE!Available Now!!!
For the uninitiated, this album is an 8bit remake of our first album (Act I). MAVS made this record while we were all still living at our Thundercon compound in Nashville around 2007. If you’ve somehow never heard it, you can check it out on our Bandcamp page.

But seriously now, it’s about time we released this album on tape. If you don’t know the Tastyvein backstory, I’d love to tell you here, but it would just take too long and you’d still be confused at the end. However, I will tell you that there was an infamous red tape involved. And that red tape is something I want to talk to you about right now…

SWEEPSTAKES COMPETITION EXCITATHON TIME!!!!
We’ve randomly inserted a single somewhat-carefully recreated replica of that red tape (I somewhat carefully recreated it myself with the factory test tape!) into the 1,000 tapes we had made for this run.

What, might you say, goes to the lucky person who finds this elusive tape? They’ll receive a lifetime supply of chocolate! Wait… chocolate is expensive. Nevermind, they’ll just get a fancy hand-crafted Cold Steel Ticket (more like a cold steel ID card, but “ticket” sounds better) that gets them into all Protomen shows for free… forever… (excluding Festivals, Private Events, or any other situations where we have no control over entry)!!!!!!See? That’s way better than chocolate. Ok, probably not better than chocolate.

On top of all that, we’ve brought back the Grid Shirt to go along with this release. We have 3 types, regular Men’s/Unisex, Women’s, and Unisex Sleeveless. They’re all pretty cool. You should probably buy one of each and wear them all at the same time.

OCTOBER TOUR
And don’t forget we’ll be getting on the road at the very end of September heading out west for some serious music banding. We’ll be joined by our dearest of dear friends, Makeup And Vanity Set (whom some of you may remember from the start of this mailer), and Bit Brigade. Tours like this don’t come along very often, especially while we’re working on the single greatest album of recorded time, so do your best to make it to a show. And don’t wait too long to grab tickets, because they’re running low all over the place.

We’re heading out for a short tour in October to get back in shape and to keep our brains from frying from all the Act III studioing. We’ll have our dearest friends, Makeup And Vanity Set and Bit Brigade, with us on the whole trip, so don’t do something silly like skip out on the greatest shows of all recorded time. Also, we think MAVS is gonna defect when he gets to the West coast (you see… I’m saying he’s Sean Connery in this very flimsy Hunt For Red October analogy. Ooooh! And the reason our first show is on Sept 30th is because we wanted to get a head start, since it takes a while to drive a submarine from Nashville to Chicago! Nah, still flimsy. Don’t worry. We’ll figure out the analogy before the tour or we’ll call the whole thing off and try for the “Sweet November” tour… where we just drive the bus to wherever Keanu Reeves is to tell him what a shit movie that was, and that Bill and Ted 3 better come out before Act III, or else).

Also, if you can get to Portland, we’re doing a special VIP Ticket Meet & Greet situation before the show. It’ll be fun, if you’re into that sort of thing.

PHANTOM RACER
In case any of you missed the recent news, we teamed up with TWRP (Tupper Ware Remix Party) on their fancy new album, Together Through Time, to make a little ditty called “Phantom Racer” (apple music,spotify, and bandcamp). It’s a nice fist-pumper-of-a-jam about a murder car on the loose. It also features Game Grumps‘ own Arin Hanson as The Announcer. The rest of the album is pretty rad, too, so you should totally check it out… if you think you can handle it.

Annddd… they’re on tour right now, so be sure to check them out if they come to your town. Remember, they’re Canadian, so they only get let out of their cages every so often, so you better make it count!

GAMBLER’S HEART BENEFIT SHOW (not a benefit for Gambler’s heart)
The Gambler has taken it upon herself to do a full show of Heart jams in August to benefit YEAH (Southern Girls Rock Camp and Tennessee Teens Rock Camp). This is her flying solo, but she’ll have a band backing her up to the extreme. So if you like Heart (and who doesn’t?!) and you like Gambler (and who doesn’t?!) and you like supporting kids learning how to make rock and roll (and who doesn’t?!), you should totally make it out to the show and support the cause!And if Heart and The Gambler aren’t enough for you, there’s gonna be two other bands there playing all ABBA and Talking Heads, too!!!! It doesn’t look like they’re doing advance tickets, so just show up and get in. Info below:

They’re finally here!!!!!! The Act II Vinyl/Popup Book and Light Up The Night Blu-Ray are currently shipping across the universe. We’re extremely sorry it’s taken so long to get these two out the door. We’ve never done a pop-up book or a Blu-ray before, so the learning curve/s and hangups were intense. Either way, they’re finally ready to go and we hope you’ll think they were worth the wait. We think they’re both pretty rad!

And if you haven’t grabbed them yet, don’t sit on it too long. We didn’t make a huge surplus, so they’ll probably be gone before you know it (and we’ve still got the suuuuper exciting combo packs on the Soundmachine Store).

As for other news? We’re just doing a whole lot of studioing. You know… making the goods (i.e. biscuits, donuts, bread, Act III, etc).

Don’t expect any shows this year because we’ve got a record to finish, but you should probably keep your eyes and ears peeled, just in case. As usual, watch your inboxes for these mailers and then all the things like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and the News page for any and all updates of any and all kinds.

That being said, we just got word from the boys and girls on the board that we’ve gotta up our Instagram numbers or we’re out on the street. So, get to following us and we swear we’ll try to post more interesting things on there to make you and our overly needy board-members happy.

This is just a quick update about the Black Friday-Cyborg Monday sales action we’re unleashing on the Sound Machine Store (just a heads up, there’s a second page of products in the store) this weekend. Everything is 20% off when you use this code at checkout*: TWENTY2017

*Friday-Monday night – offer only valid in the Sound Machine Store.

We’ve reprinted a small number of the six Light Up The Night screen-print tour posters that we had on our last tour in support of the video/short film (NYC, Nashville, Orlando, Austin, Los Angeles, and Denver). They sold out pretty quick on the tour, so here’s your chance to catch them all, just like the Pokermen. Not only that, but we’re also offering a signed option, just in case you want us to ruin the beautiful DeLucca art with our signatures. And if you’re feeling extra froggy, you can buy the whole set in a combo where you essentially get one for free (and then you get the 20% off with the code, as well!exclamation point!exclamation point!exclamation point!!!).

Also, the Clear and Split Clear/Black A Night Of Queen records are running really low, so if you want one of those, you’d better act now. There’re only about 200 left.

Also also, we’ve ported mostly all of the In-Stock items over from the Light Up The Night store, so you can access the discount for those items, if you’re into that sort of thing.

Sorry for the big break between mailers. We’ve been super busy busting some serious ass in the studio since we got back from that last run of shows in support of the Light Up video. Speaking of which, I’d like to thank everybody that made it out and participated in the Q&As, those were ridiculously fun, awkward, and amazing. Thanks again.

After the extremely long wait, the A Night Of Queen records are here (currently shipping), and they’re ferociously rad. The embossed cover is suuuuuuper classy, and the three different record color styles look beautiful (black, clear, and black/clear split).

Watch the fancy promo video above to see what it’s all about.

And if you’re swayed by the immensely effervescent promotional artistry at work in the video (ok, I know it wasn’t really effervescent, but that’s the adjective that popped in my mind while I was typing this, and I do what I want.), go to the store and pick something up.

LIGHT UP THE NIGHT
If you’ve ordered Light Up The Night stuff, you should have gotten an update email somewhat recently, but if you can’t find your copy, know that major progress has been made on the superrad vinyl. It ran into multiple production delays due to its awesomeness, but it’s firmly on track now and coming along quickly.

Not only that, but all of the special features are finally done for the Light Up The Night bluray, so those are hitting production very soon, as well. We’re hideously sorry for all of the delays, and we can’t wait to get those to you as soon as possible. If it’s any consolation, the behind the scenes video is even longer than the video itself!

That’s the end of the updates for now, but we’ve got lots more coming, so stay tuned to whatever you like to tune the most.

This has to be the first time I’ve ever ended a mailer without listing at least one show, right? Super weird.

-Commander

p.s… Can’t break the streak! I guess it’s a streak? Maybe it isn’t… I didn’t really check. Either way, I’m gonna go ahead and list a few tours you should go check out:

Dennis DeYoung has a show in Manitowoc, WI tonight, and then a bevy of shows the rest of the year, so you should go on out and support the mess out of him and his crew.

Our new French friend, Pertubator, is on tour right now in the US, and you should go check him out if he comes near you. He played Nashville with Makeup And Vanity Set (who has some new albums, by the way) on Tuesday and it was a great night filled with joy, fun, happiness, and synth jam pentagrams. It did, however, lack Daft Punk.

Phil Collins has some shows in the UK in November and December, so you should probably go check that out if you live over there.

Local friends, Birdcloud and Thelma And The Sleaze, are both on tour right now (separately), so we implore you to go check them out (beware Birdcloud’s website if you’re terrified of butts).

As most of you know, we’re getting ready for tour next week, so I’m gonna keep this brief.

Tickets are running low for pretty much all the shows, so if you’re trying to make it to one, go ahead and grab tickets below. We won’t be on the road again like this for a while, because we’re deep up in the studio right now working on… something suuuper secret (ok, it’s not really a secret… Act III), so be sure to come on out, because we want to see your smiling faces one last time before we go into our Dennehy protected cocoon.

And don’t forget that Orlando and Austin Proto rock shows/meet and greets are at different venues than the Film Screenings/Q&A action. Info and combo tickets are in the links below.

Big thanks to everyone that came to the NY show last month. We had an unbelievably fun time being back at Williamsburg Music Hall and it was surreal to watch the film from the back of the same room it was filmed in. It was like the crowd just melted into the crowd on the screen.
#sortoflikeaninfinitymirrorbutnotexactlylikeaninfinitymirrorbecauseitisntreallyinfiniteanditisntreallyamirror

LIGHT UP THE MINI-TOUR
We had so much fun in NY that we’re gonna head across the country next month with the Light Up The Night video in tow and show it in a couple of our favorite cities before returning to our work in the studio. We’ll only be showing it in 5 cities (Nashville, Orlando, Austin, LA, and Denver), so road trips are encouraged. And just like NY, we’re hosting a fancy Meet/Greet/Q/A/Rock/Show-style soiree after the video. Some cities will be all-in-one video/show parties, while a couple (Orlando and Austin) will be split across two venues (and in Austin’s case, two days) of Proto-excitement to allow us to show the video in a couple of really rad theaters. Show info below and on the Tour Page.

AND… remember that super limited edition screen printed NY poster from the last mailer? Well, I couldn’t tell you at the time, but it was the first in a series of fancy posters for all the video screenings on this upcoming tour. Caspar (our designer and co-director of the film) has put together a different poster for Nashville, Orlando, Austin, Los Angeles, and Denver using different panels of the DeLucca comic art from the video, and they’re suuuper rad. We can’t wait to show you all of them, but in the mean time, here’s the latest one for the Nashville screening at Belcourt Theater. Can anyone collect them all?

NASHVILLE FILM FESTIVAL
And THEN, do you remember that time I said the Belcourt show would be the first time the video was shown in all it’s Surround Sound glory. Well… I got turned into a liar. Light Up The Night was chosen to be part of the Nashville Film Festival and will be shown twice in late April at Regal Hollywood 27 in Nashville. I’m not exactly sure how attendance works for these things, but if you can figure it out, just don’t spoil it for the rest of us. We’re all dying to know if things turn out okay for Joe and Tom in the surround sound version.

But if you can’t make it to those showings, don’t worry too much. We’ll see you at the big Belcourt show coming up on May 18th… and it “May” just be the greatest show to ever happen on the face of the Earth… or not, whichever’s funnier.

NEW YORK
Check out the fresh new fancy 18″x 24″ screen printed poster for the NY Light Up The Night show/screening/Q&A/meet&greet extravaganza at the same venue where the video was shot all those 200 years ago. Big thanks to John DeLucca for being the most incredible artist we’ve ever known (we don’t personally know Syd Mead, so you get a pass there, DeLucca…). These are in crazy limited supply and exclusive to the NY show, so don’t miss out on one. And don’t miss out on tickets to the show, either, because they’re moving fast. Get tickets below.

BOSTON
As I’m sure most of you already guessed from the last mailer, we ARE playing PAX on Friday night with Bit Brigade and Videri String Quartet. If you’re gonna be at PAX, you have no excuse not to be there (and no, being “tired” isn’t an excuse. That’s exactly what they invented PCP for *).

For those of you who plan on hanging around Boston after PAX, and/or weren’t able to get PAX tickets before they sold out… don’t forget we’ve got that suuuper rad Post-PAX show at Royale on Monday, with us, Bit Brigade, MC Frontalot, and newly announced Powerglove! This one is gonna be intense.

NASHVILLE
And you didn’t think we’d only give NY the fancy Light Up The Night screening treatment, did you? We’re doing the same thing at the Belcourt Theater in Nashville on May 18th. Not only will this be the first time it’s shown in an actual movie theater, but this will be the first time anyone besides us has heard the film in 5.1 Surround Sound, as well. And this is the first time we’ve had an all ages show in Nashville in FOREVER. It’s pretty fancy, so go ahead and get to thinking about going ahead and thinking about getting tickets right now!

And for everyone else (not really eevverryone, but you know what I mean), don’t worry, we’ve got a few more Light Up The Night events coming that are spread out across the US, and we’ll be announcing them soon.

THE COVER UP
In other news, if you’ve got the yearn for your very own Cover Up record, now’s the time, because they’re almost sold out. And who knows if/when we’ll press more. Dennis DeYoung of Styx said it was his favorite cover of Mr Roboto he’s ever heard (and I promptly shit my britches all over the place when I heard that). So you really don’t want to miss out on having something that prestigious in your record collection, do you? I already bought two copies just in case.